Learning from others’ mistakes always makes business easier. At least that’s what Liberty Global is counting on as looks at digital video coming to television around the world. Chief Executive Mike Fries tell us a few of the lessons he took away from the roll-out of digital video and products like DVRs in the United States.
- “Be patient with your box development.”
- “You want to have everybody on the same platform.”
- “Be disciplined about the economic model… don’t spend too much on the box.”
- “It’s about the applications, not the content.”
All about the applications? Fries elaborates:
It’s about video on demand, it’s about a DVR that’s robust. And it’s about HD content. That doesn’t mean consumers don’t want another 100 channels. They might want another 100 channels and we’re gonna give it to them. But what we’re finding is fundamentally… it’s about those applications.
It allows you to push applications. It doesn’t devalue the content. But it gives you another level of ammunition. What I can do is manipulate the content. I can give them tools to rediscover the content to fall back in love with the content
(Photo: Reuters)
